A toddler facing death after being ravaged by a flesh-eating bug was told by his heart- broken mother that he could ‘go’ if he wanted to.

Lucy Dove gently whispered the words into 18-month-old Frankie Mould’s ear because she couldn’t bear to see him suffer any more.

Her son had been through a nine-and-a-half hour operation to remove skin and tissue from his back and thigh, but doctors did not think he would survive the night and had told his parents to hope for a miracle.

Although the odds were stacked against him, Frankie showed extraordinary resilience to battle back from the brink – and is now home from hospital after six weeks of treatment.

‘He is doing well at the moment and we are so happy that he is alive,’ said Miss Dove from Sunderland.

‘We weren’t religious, but we are now. When doctors haven’t got any hope what are you left with? We started praying to save him and our prayers were answered.’

Frankie is thought to have got the necrotising fasciitis bug from a graze to his forehead a few weeks earlier.

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At one point a nurse told Miss Dove, 25, and the boy’s father Wayne Mould, also 25, that he was ‘the sickest boy in the country’.

Getting better all the time: Frankie was left in a coma after suffering from a horrific flesh-eating bug

Happy toddler: Frankie is recovering with help from his mother Lucy

Frankie was put in a drug-induced coma for 12 days to help his body fight for life.

He had a second operation lasting five hours to remove more infected tissue and then had skin graft surgery to repair the terrible damage caused by the bug.

Skin was taken from his legs and trunk and stretched across his back and damaged thigh.

The terrifying bug was stopped just in time and the prompt treatment at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary has been a success.

Amazing recovery: Frankie was put in a drug-induced coma for 12 days to help his body fight for life

Shock: Frankie's illness was thought to have started from a graze to his forehead, where the bacteria got into his body

The family’s ordeal began on April 8 when Frankie developed flu-like symptoms and behaved ‘strangely’ as if he was in agony.

His mother took him to the local casualty unit and noticed a lump on his back – the first outward sign of the bug that was attacking his tissue below the surface.

Frankie was transferred to the RVI where he had the first marathon operation to cut out the infected areas and was then put into the intensive care unit.

Marathon operation: Frankie had a five-hour procedure to have a skin graft over his infected leg and back

Miss Dove, a mother of two, said: ‘They were saying they needed a miracle and having to take it minute by minute.

‘Being a mum you have to put your children first, and I thought, “is it selfish of me to want him to get through this, because of the damage to his body?” We were told bad things all the time so I whispered in his ear, “Frankie, if you want to go, you go.” But he didn’t want to go and stayed stable throughout. He is so tough.’